Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, Glenn Gould :: Handel: Harpsichord Sonatas Nos. 1-4; Bach: Preludes & Fugues, BWV 878 & 883

A real oddity from a great pianist.,

Kate Clunies-Ross | the South of England | 02/14/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Well, you will never have heard a harpsichord like this! Glenn Gould was no harpsichordist (although, in my opinion an incomparable pianist) and the Wittmeyer instrument he chose to use sounds most peculiar in places.

Gould chose to make this recording on a harpsichord following serious accidental damage caused to his beloved Steinway piano CD318, which rendered it unfit for use for quite some time. This resulting recording is interesting, if hardly ranking among his greatest performances! But it does have a sense of fun that is infectious...this is Gould saying "This is me having fun, but don't take it too seriously." Listen to track 4; the Gigue from Suite No 1 in A major. It may sound fanciful , but if anyone could ever be said to be making a harpsichord laugh, that is what Gould is doing here, although to me the tempo of this movement is somewhat uneven. Unfortunately Track 1, the Prelude to this particular suite, is rather weak, and certainly lacks the clarity and decisiveness usually associated with Gould's playing. On initally hearing this opening track I thought that for the first time I had bought a Gould recording that would be disappointing, but I was wrong. I stuck with it and found the remainder of the CD much more rewarding, although as I said above, it remains for me a curiosity more than a classic example of Glenn Gould at his sublime best. There is only one other recording (as far as I know) that gives us a glimpse of Glenn Gould playing an instrument other than the piano, and that is his recording of extracts from Bach's Art of Fugue, the first nine tracks of which he recorded on the organ. And that is altogether a more serious effort than this strange harpsichord offering.Incidently you can also watch on video Gould at the harpsichord playing tracks 25 and 26 of this CD ( Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E major from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier) on Sony's Glenn Gould Collection IV - "So You Want To Write A Fugue?". Watching him at this unfamiliar instrument is quite a contrast, following as it does a rendition of Bach's G minor Concerto on the grand piano with the Toronto Symphony! This is probably a CD for devoted Gould addicts only, or at least for those who are reasonably familiar with his piano recordings. . It's enjoyable, but you won't want to listen to it as often as his other work."

BE PREPARED

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 07/11/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Where Gould is concerned we always need to expect the unexpected. Damage to his Steinway grand piano thwarted his plan to record the Handel keyboard suites using that: the critical reception given to his plan B, namely to record them on the harpsichord instead, brought that scheme to a halt after he had done just the first 4 out of the total number of 15 or 16. Here they are anyway, together with two preludes and fugues from the second book of Bach's 48, on a Wittmayer instrument, the one harpsichord Gould was comfortable with.



The legend of Gould's eccentricity has lost nothing in the telling. I find little or no eccentricity in most of his playing, but he can always spring surprises and he chooses to do just that on the very first track of this disc. His playing of the prelude to Handel's first suite is downright peculiar. Gould applies a heavy rubato, and between that and the way he spreads the chords the melodic line becomes extremely hard to follow. Afterwards everything is really comparatively plain sailing, at any rate for me. I suppose not everyone is going to like his choice of tempi at times, nor his slightly erratic approach to the question of playing repeats. In particular the Air from the set of variations in the third Handel suite is made to take nearly as long as the following five variations combined, but I still have no real problem. It has an air of spontaneous mood-of-the-moment creation for me, and I even suspect that the legendary improviser Handel might have been rather pleased at hearing such whimsical imagination brought to bear on music he had written mainly for the purposes of teaching. Imagination was probably the last thing he would have expected from many of his pupils.



Gould's registration is a bit of a curate's egg to me. Some of it seems very effective indeed, but he has a predilection for one rather throttled-sounding register that I wish he had used a bit less. Otherwise Gould is still Gould - one of the greatest technicians of the keyboard there can ever have been - and you will find here as you will find in nearly everything he did that uncanny evenness of touch, crispness of ornamentation and his distinctive `bite' in the rhythm.



Those who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like, I suppose. As it happens, I do not own a version of the Handel suites. I am an enormous admirer of Handel and an enormous admirer of Gould, so I am more than pleased to have acquired this particular subset of them. I would recommend sampling the disc before buying, because it is going to be a matter of individual taste even more than is usually the case. Alternatively, just take the plunge and get yourself a disc whose faults at least do not include predictability. Better sorry than safe, I say."